The Union of Arms (in Spanish Unión de Armas) was a political proposal, put forward by Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares for greater military co-operation between the constituent parts of the composite monarchy ruled by Philip IV of Spain.[1][2]

The plan was for each of the kingdoms ruled by Philip to contribute equitably to a fund from which 140,000 troops would be maintained for the defense of the monarchy.[3] The plan was "a thinly disguised attempt to integrate the fiscal institutions of the empire [that] prompted much opposition in the Indies."[4][5][6]

Union of Arms.

The division of contributions envisaged was:[7]

Although the proposal ultimately failed, it was an important factor in the growing mistrust of Castilian hegemony that led to the Reapers' War in Catalonia and the Portuguese Restoration War.

See also

Further reading


References

  1. ^ J.H. Elliott, The Count-Duke Olivares: The Statesman in an Age of Decline. New Haven: Yale University Press 1966, pp. 244-77.
  2. ^ I. A. A. Thompson, "Castile, Spain and the Monarchy", in Spain, Europe and the Atlantic (Festschrift for J. H. Elliott), edited by Richard L. Kagan and Geoffrey Parker (Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 147-148.
  3. ^ Colin Pendrill, Spain, 1474–1700 (Oxford, 2002), p. 137.
  4. ^ Kenneth J. Andrien, "Unión de Armas," in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, vol. 5. p. 293. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996.
  5. ^ Fred Bronner, "La Unión de Armas en el Perú: Aspectos políticos-legales," in Anuario de Estudios Americanos 24 (1967)pp. 1133-1176.
  6. ^ Jonathan I. Israel, Race, Class, and Politics in Colonial Mexico, 1610-1670. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1975, pp. 178-80.
  7. ^ Propositie gedaen aen de Staten van Braband door Don Diego van Mexia (n.p.d.). Available on Google Books.
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